Learned Apathy

So I'm thinking that apathy is learned.

I think apathy becomes learned, bred, and eventually ingrained through any number (or combination) of unaddressed, unchanged circumstances. Through the continued, consistent factors that eventually wears us down to the point of checking out.  And I believe this extends across all walks of life and environments, from work to school to the home. While I'm sure there are vastly more factors, the biggest ones I've seen so far include

• Those around you - co-workers, peers - just don't care anymore. Apathy becomes contagious.  Consider any moment, in work, in school, in life, when someone else was checked out. (An aside here may be the levels of employee engagement, from engaged - those who invest themselves in their work, to disengaged - those who show up, punch the clock, and head out, to the actively disengaged - who actively work against the company). Imagine those in either of the latter two categories you consider co-workers: you're doing the same job, the same pay, day after day. And even though you're invested - personally, financially - in the job, nothing changes. Why keep trying when so-and-so isn't? Why should I keep showing up on time when this other guy is consistently late and no negative repercussions seem to happen? (Although, rereading this, arguably the root of the issue doesn't sound like it's on your co-worker...) 
• Those above you - parents, teachers, managers - don't care either. Now apathy isn't just learned, but almost taught. We model those we look up to. And it's the same as above. But let's look at schools now. For those of you unfamiliar with Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin's teacher is a perfect of example of someone who's checked out and just counting the days until retirement. And in schools we also have to think about the impact of parents. If parent's don't care about their child's performance or actions, why would the child?
• Changing/shifting guidelines and expectations - when what you're told or what's expected of you is changed more frequently than not. The same goes for which things are priority: if everything is the most important thing, nothing is (Monday it's this thing, tomorrow it's this, Wednesday a third thing "just has to get done!", Thursday jumps back to Monday's priority, and by Friday directions just sound like parents in a Charlie Brown cartoon). 
• Being treated as inferior or the expectation of poor performance - I feel this one is rather self-explanatory. I do believe we rise to the level expected of us, for better or worse. Of course, the caveat is that the person has the knowledge, tools, resources, and support to rise to the expectations set for them. So I suppose an addendum would be that the combination of high expectations and low support, ability, and authority to actually do anything is, in essence, setting someone up to fail. And what would be a logical conclusion from there...? For more information, check out the results of Robert Rosenthal's 1964 experiment, as well as the Pygmalion Effect.

I do believe that people want to do well and be proud of their work and the results they can affect. But somewhere, at some point in our lives, we learn to just phone it in. The question then becomes, how can we reverse the trend?

I know I know I know

It happens far more than I'd like to admit. These lengthy dry spells without a single word written. I've appreciated this blog as an outlet, to sit and type - whatever comes out of it usually ends up surprising me as well as tangent leads to tangent and suddenly I've realized something completely new and different, about myself, about the topic, about anything. It has always amazed me where my stream of consciousness takes me, and I am thankful to have this forum to do so.

It just doesn't work as well when I don't use it. Or, as has been the case over the past few weeks, I start writing something but don't finish it. Or I reconsider it. Or end up rereading it after grabbing another cup of coffee only to realize it's absolutely ridiculous. It happens. But I also have been away from this ol' computer too long lately.

And admittedly even I was getting bored with the Multiple Intelligence video idea. So there's that.

But this absence has helped me realize how much I do enjoy writing and getting out of my head. As though it gives me a sense of purpose, a form of simple enjoyment. I suppose writing is my hobby, just more intermittent than I'd like. I suppose that starts with me though. Carving out the time to sit down and put pen to paper. Not making a big deal of it - I think we all know those times when something we do becomes something we "have" to do, and in the end the prep work we tell ourselves is required becomes more consuming than the actual at itself and inevitably nothing gets done. "I'll do it tomorrow". Heck, I just told myself that not half an hour ago. But why wait? And perhaps I'll end up writing tomorrow as well. But that's tomorrow. I'll worry about that then. How's it go? "Yesterday is history, tomorrow's a mystery, today's a gift. That's why it's called the present." Perhaps paraphrased, and cheesy as heck, but a fair sentiment nonetheless.

So it's time to get back on track!

(Hopefully)

Daily Purpose

A post I've been rolling around in my head for the past several months. I meant to put pen to paper on this topic - reflecting on purpose, identity, and raison d'etre - for months now, though admittedly I'm glad I've procrastinated this long as I've come to a few new insights.

It's interesting to me the generational differences (and industry differences) in relative perspective at work. No longer is "live to work" the reigning paradigm. Us youngsters generally carry more of a "work to live" mentality, where rather than define ourselves by what we do for a living, but what we do with that living. I tried to take this at face value after leaving my old position and beginning at a tool and die shop for the interim. I argued that it wasn't what I was doing in the hours I punched the clock, but what I was doing the other 118 hours of the week that mattered more. And so I continued, grateful simply for a job to pay the bills, a luxury not available to everyone.

So with my safety and security needs met (Maslow; to be continued), I found myself looking for more. Looking back, with the perspective afforded through 20/20 hindsight, I better see the pros and cons of my previous life, chronicled a bit more in my previous post (found here), and I find myself missing that satisfaction that comes with personally meaningful outcomes. And it is only from this detour that I can see that picture more clearly.

Several months ago I was able to sit down with a company's OD personnel, to talk and network, to glean some insights on breaking into the field. One of the biggest things I took away from that meeting was the metaphor she used when explaining how her son did mazes: he would find the dead-ends first and black them out, ruling out false leads and misdirection, until, eventually, only the way through was left. It seems so simple, and yet so poignant. By figuring out what doesn't work, one can better find their path. Of course this isn't a quick fix. And applying it personally has yielded some interesting, albeit at times uncomfortable realizations.

It is with all this (and always so much more that can't possibly be put into words) in mind that I find myself needing to find purpose once again. "Work to live", I believe, has more connotations than just defining yourself by what you do off the clock (and before I forget I should mention that such generalizations are clearly not true for everyone. Just wanted to throw that out there for completion sake). I think it also is a reversal of defining ourselves by our jobs, instead finding meaningful work defined by who we are personally. I think we've shifted away from finding a position and assuming that identity to recognizing our own identity and finding the work that embodies it. I'm thinking this may be a big reason my generation is over-educated and under-employed, because we've been, by and large, searching more for purpose and passion. For better or worse of course. And so I find myself unfortunately lumped into this cliched stereotype.

But we persevere. I am actively searching for this fulfillment, though tempering it with the realization that this is still the real world and such accomplishments as finding such a purpose will be neither easy nor quick. And, an aspect I fear is lost on many, just because I strive to succeed, because I put in the time, because I want it enough - there is no guarantee. That's life. So I continue to work on it. To think and reflect, and, most importantly, get up and do something about it. "Do or do not. There is no try". Thank you Yoda. 

Mo' Material Wealth, Mo' Problems

Winston Churchill is quoted with

"Show me a young conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart.  Show me an old liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains."

Taking a stab at what he was talking about, I would argue that it's not so much about politics (especially contemporary parties!) or beliefs, but rather about preservation.  I believe he was referring to the basic human reaction to gain: preserve it as best you can, using the same tactics used to get it.  Liberalism - progressivism - is a tool to be used to break the status quo.  It can be, and is, used to disrupt the current state.  Out with the old, in the new.  Young people for generations have served as the foundation (read: not the whole thing.  Please don't argue history with me. Same goes for my use of "liberalism" in the previous sentence.  We'rte talking about the base ideology, not political affiliation.) for ideological change.  "Old" people have, for all intents and purposes, served as the primary pushers and movers of maintaining that very status quo, integration to rock'n'roll.

They say each subsequent generation suffers and solves the problems of the previous one. But it's that preceding generation who still clings on, desperately  to their beliefs they undoubtedly fought tirelessly to institute.

What does this have to do with anything, you ask.  Well, I respond, a trend I've been noticing as I get older is that those peers I grew up with, as we all go about our lives establishing careers, buying houses, starting families, the same people I once recognized as progressives, are now beginning their journey into conservativism.  From this, I've been beginning to think that the more one gains, the more one has, sways their ideological (and inevitably political) persuasion toward the right.  It seems to me that, simply, the more one has, the more one wishes to keep it that way, even at the expense of others getting their's as well.  In case you're new to my blog, please take a second and shuffle through old posts to figure out exactly how I feel about personal entitlement.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.

Back?  Good.  So I'm assuming you've learned that I tend to scoff when someone believes their "entitled" to something.  That I tend to smirk when someone tells me they "earned this! No one helped me!".  That I, frankly, find those things ludicrous.

Now, I haven't quite figured out what to make of my observations.  All I can say for certain is that, form what I've observed, the more people have, the more they tend to think they've earned it all by themselves.  And the more people think they've earned it on their own, the more they will begin to resist any and all change to the society that "allowed" them that profit.  It seems that while one can, on occasion, move from the lower to the middle class, they forget exactly what it's like to be that low on the totem pole.  And those born into wealth, they will never know.

A Self-Made Man

Is there such a thing?  One the one hand, we've the idea that through enough hard work, dedication, and perseverance, we can achieve anything.  That through our own ambition, we are responsible for finding success. Or failure.  On the other hand, the argument can be made that there is no such thing as a "self-made man".  That everyone needs someone to help them out on their way up.  Businesses need someone to buy their services.  Companies need roads to transport their goods.  Even Wall Street needs someone to invest in.  Teachers, associates, the coworker who wrote the letter of recommendation...

I am of the latter persuasion.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating blaming shortcomings or missteps on others, nor for people to sit back and wait for their "white knight".  I'm saying that people need to take responsibility for their lives.  Be it through education, networking, or just taking a wild chance, a shot in the dark - there IS something you can do.  Even given the raw deal or hit with a blow that brought you to your knees, you are still accountable.  How will you react?  Roll over and give up, or fall down seven times, get up eight?  I argue the latter.  So take responsibility for where you end up.  Invest more of yourself.  Take an honest look at your weaknesses and exercise your strengths.  Build your own ladder.  But don't forget all those who enabled you to do so.

Changing Your Fate

I just saw a movie preview with the tagline "Would you change your fate?"  Now that doesn't really make sense to me: how could we know our fate in order to change it?  And once we live out our fate, wouldn't it be too late by then?  And isn't the very point of "fate" that things are the way they are and there's no changing them?  By changing them, wouldn't that effectively nullify the very concept of "fate"?  And again, if we don't know our fate, how could we be sure we're changing it?  What if the change itself was "fated" to happen?

Vicious circle?

See, I'm of the belief that fate is an excuse; used as a scapegoat, a handy way out of taking responsibility for things not working out your way.  I'm sure we've all heard the line, "It wasn't meant to be", or any variation thereof.  As I'm sure you could ascertain from many of my previous posts, I'm not big on the idea that defining your success by everything you've done or everything you have (too many variables.  There is no such thing as the "self-made man"), I do and will continue to maintain that you still get a say in how things turn out.  A cartoon I happened across in the funnies section was a one-panel shot of the protagonist amid a pile of lumber, looking at the empty box titled "Ladder of Success. Some Assembly Required".  What role does fate play there?  We can each decide to build the ladder or sit by and complain that our ladder wouldn't be tall enough anyway.  May we need some help along the way?  Of course.  Can we add to our lumber?  Of course.  So are you going to stand by, wishing to change your fate?  Or will you start building?

I, for one, will build.  But I know I'll need a hand along the way.

Successful Organizations

What makes a successful organization?  Is there a specific formula to follow, or a special recipe where one can add A, B, and C and come out on top?  I'm thinking it's not that easy.  I realize we've been taught since day one that your success is determined by the sweat of your brow and the ache of your back.  That you are solely responsible to make or break your own accomplishments.  The so-called "American Dream", where if you work hard enough, put enough of yourself into it, you can live the dream, so to speak.  But is that really it?  Are there not circumstances outside of your control that can influence the same success or failure?  Regardless of how much we personally invest in something, doesn't it still need outside influence?  Doesn't a business still need people to buy their stuff?  Doesn't an organization still need funding that may or not be available?  Is it YOUR fault if others don't believe in something as much as you do?

Now, I'm sure there are some out there reading this who would pose the argument that YOU need to convince them, that it falls on YOU to change their minds.  And to an extent, I agree.  I would also agree that there are times when it's not so much about succeeding or failing, but what you do and how you react to trials and tribulations.  Do you give up if the first dozen attempts fall through?  Do you just quit, complaining that life's not fair if things don't work out in your favor?  Of course not.  In that aspect we are accountable.  We are the only ones who can fully control ourselves.  Each of us, individually, are the sole proprietors of the we act and react to any given situations.  But at the same time, I would say that's a post for a new day and a completely different train of thought.

What I'm talking about is the organization itself.  What does it take to get an organization, a company, a business off the ground and running?  And maintain sustainability?  I suppose the best place to begin is to look at your own organization.  What are your strengths?  Weaknesses?  What have you been doing well to capitalize on and what needs work?  What else can you take advantage of and what out there should you be wary of?  A quick SWOT analysis may be the first step, and I'd be curious to hear what some strengths are, and look for similar factors across industries.